Green at Home

How to Choose Eco-Friendly and Toxin-Free Paint or Wallpaper for Your Nursery

Preparing your baby's nursery can be a wonderful time of planning and dreaming.  Many times, that means choosing a paint color or wallpaper (or a combination of both), furnishings, and flooring. Today, many people are aware that the fumes from paint, wallpaper and carpet can be toxic.  Babies, with their tiny, developing systems, are especially vulnerable to toxins in the air and on surfaces they touch with their delicate skin.  In order to avoid these poisonous substances, you may choose to decorate baby's nursery with eco-friendly items. Here are some things to keep in mind as you seek to create a non-toxic environment for your little one. Paint Generally speaking, paint is less expensive than wallpaper.  When you look for paints, there are many green options available.  The first thing to look for in an eco-friendly paint is a lack of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.  These are the chemicals that create the fumes and subsequent headaches and respiratory problems that many people experience with conventional paints. Look for water-based paints with labels that say things like "biodegradable," "phosphate-free" and, of course, "VOC-free."  While these types of environmentally friendly paints are more expensive, they generally only require one coat due to their rich pigmentation. Choosing paint ...

• Bookmark :
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Stumbleupon
• Redit it

Green Living: Tips to Conserve Water

Today, it is not hard to find people talking about green living, but many people focus on conserving energy and while this is vital, it is just as important and maybe more so to conserve water.  People can live without electricity, but they cannot live without water.  Therefore, conserving water is living a green lifestyle.  You can do little things that make an impact on saving the planet from drying up. First, take inventory of your faucets in your home and your toilets, if you have a leaky faucet or toilet, the water is literally being wasted and it can also cost you more in water bills when you have a leaky faucet.  Most leaky faucets just need a simple washer to stop the leak entirely. Only run the washing machine when you have a full load.  When you wash small loads, you use more water than a full load does.  It also saves on electricity, so you are helping not only to conserve water, but you save on electricity costs. Take shorter showers.  Everyone knows how great it feels in the cold winters to take those long hot showers, but taking long showers is literally water down the drain.  Even if you ...

• Bookmark :
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Stumbleupon
• Redit it

What to Look for When Buying a Green Home

More green homes are showing up on the market these days than ever before.  This is because the whole world is becoming more concerned about energy use today and leaving a carbon footprint.  But the buyer needs to be careful because not everything advertised as green is just that.  There are some things to consider before buying one of these houses. Try to find a real estate agent that knows about green houses for one thing.  Not all of them understand everything they should.  If you can find one that has been certified by the NAR (National Association of Realtors), that would be ideal.  The realtor that has gone through this certification process can acquaint you with the green features of the home along with explaining any tax credits you can get or other information you need to know in conjunction with the house. If you can't find a NAR realtor then you can tell if a house is totally green by looking for certification from a third party.  There are several organizations out there that do this Energy Star is probably the best known one.  This certification shows the house has been tested and inspected for it better using energy than ...

• Bookmark :
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Stumbleupon
• Redit it

How to Build a Zero-Carbon Home

Many people today are turning to building zero-carbon homes.  They are doing this to harm the planet less and be more energy conscience.  With the fossil fuels being used up and polluting the atmosphere, people have started looking to more renewable resources for their energy needs.  When a house is built from the ground up it is easy to add in eco-friendly characteristics. Clean Energy Solar and wind power is being used more and more to light up or heat the homes.  These forms of energy are completely renewable and better yet clean.  They give off no carbon emissions what so ever.  Of course, these can be used along with traditional electricity too.  Some even sell their unused energy back to the power companies.  However, many are choosing to go totally off the grid too.  This means they provide 100% percent of their energy needs. The goal is to have the house produce more energy than it consumes.  Many times lifestyles also need to be altered some too.  If a family wastes energy they will need to start conserving it to live this way.  However, technologies are improving all the time in this area. Building Products Today homes can be built with more eco-friendly supplies ...

• Bookmark :
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Stumbleupon
• Redit it

Decorating Your Home the Green-Living Way

You can have a very interesting and unique decorating scheme throughout your house by basing it on green living.  How do you achieve this?  Through repurposing old items and bringing nature into the house are two ways.  Another way is to use things that come from renewable resources. Repurposing Old Items Instead of throwing out that old child's desk redo the finish on with some fresh stain or new paint.  It can then be used as a decorative unit to place flowers on underneath that large window which is a bare area right now.  Don't get rid of all those old Mason jars sitting in the basement.  Use soy wax, which is natural, and make candles using the mason jars for the wax's container.  These jars also make great storage for nuts, bolts, nails and other small items especially when you have the lids too. Old clothing can even be repurposed as cleaning cloths, other clothing, or even blankets if you do quilting.  You can cut old shirts into strips of cloth and crochet rugs out of these strips.  What a marvelous way to repurpose something.  You know that old bucket that has a leak in it?  Why not turn it into a ...

• Bookmark :
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Stumbleupon
• Redit it